FAQs

The circa 21.2ha site is located to the north of Spondon, on either side of Locko Road. Existing residential dwellings border the site’s southern boundary on the west side of Locko Road, with Spondon Cricket Club and allotments bordering the site on the east side of Local Road.

The northern boundary of the site is formed by a watercourse, consisting of Lees Brook on the west side of Locko Road and an unnamed stream on the eastern side. This provides a clear and logical boundary of the site separating it from countryside to the north.

The site is largely in agricultural use in a mix of arable and pasture. The agricultural fields themselves are of relatively low biodiversity value, however the site also contains higher value habitats such as mature trees and hedgerows on field boundaries. These will be retained and incorporated into the development proposals as much as possible.

The site is currently designated as Green Belt, however due to recent national planning policy changes, it is now being brought forward as a sustainably located Grey Belt site to meet increased housing need

The site occupies a highly sustainable suburban location on the edge of Derby, with a range of existing services, facilities, public transport routes and employment opportunities in the local area.

Facilities in Spondon include primary and secondary schools, supermarkets, shops, dentists, medical centre, pharmacy, parks and community facilities. To the south of Spondon is Spondon station and significant employment provision, including the recent Smart Parc development. Further significant employment can be found a short distance from Spondon, including Rolls Royce and other major employers off Raynesway.

Bloor Homes is a family-owned private housebuilder with a reputation for quality, consistently achieving the highest five-star rating for customer satisfaction in the annual National Housebuilders Federation National New Homes Customer Satisfaction Survey. Over 97% of our customers would recommend us to family and friends.

Find out more at: https://bloorhomes.com/

Bloor Homes is preparing an outline planning application for a proposed new neighbourhood at the site. This would include:

Up to 250 high-quality market and affordable homes.
Around 45% would be provided as affordable homes, including shared ownership homes that would appeal to first-time buyers.
Potential to provide accessible homes or bungalows as part of the housing mix.
A gas-free development with all homes built to be net zero carbon-ready, including air source heat pumps, solar panels, uprated insulation and EV charging infrastructure.
A landscape-led approach to development, with nearly two thirds of the site area retained as open space, including the retention of the vast majority of existing trees and hedgerows, as well as extensive planting of new trees and wooded areas.
Extensive public open spaces, including a network of walking and cycling routes providing connections to existing public rights of way in the wider area.
Children’s play areas for new and existing residents.
The potential to provide a new sports facility or community space, with local feedback welcomed on potential uses.
Bird nesting bricks or boxes in every new home and hedgehog highways between gardens.
A package of investment to support local services, to be determined in consultation with statutory consultees such as the local NHS Integrated Care Board, education and highways authorities, and others.

The government introduced a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in December 2024. This significantly increased the number of homes that need to be delivered in Derby City from 647 in the adopted Local Plan (2017) to 906 new homes per annum applicable in the city now.

The current Development Plan for Derby has fallen out of date and so the Council is preparing a new Local Plan for the area. Regulation 18 consultation on a draft of this emerging new Local Plan is currently under way, however it is anticipated to be some time before a new Local Plan is adopted. While the site is being promoting through this new Plan, in the meantime planning applications need to be considered against the current Development Plan, which is afforded less weight having fallen out of date.

The NPPF also requires that Derby City Council is able to demonstrate a five-year housing land supply. This is the amount of land that the Council must identify to ensure there are sufficient deliverable sites for residential development over the next five years. Derby City Council currently cannot demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing land. The Council’s latest assessment set out that they considered they could demonstrate only a 2.7 year supply of deliverable housing sites at 1 April 2025, only around half of that required, demonstrating an acute need for additional housing in the short term. The emerging outline proposals for Locko Road, Spondon, will contribute to meeting this housing delivery shortfall at a sustainable location.

A new Grey Belt policy was also introduced in the NPPF. This allows development in some areas of Green Belt, provided certain criteria are met. Grey Belt includes land that ‘does not strongly contribute’ to Green Belt purposes which are set out in the NPPF. The site at Spondon is sustainably located on the settlement edge. It meets the criteria for Grey Belt land and is being brought forward for a sensitive, landscape-led sustainable residential development on this basis.

An outline planning application establishes the broad principles of development, such as access arrangements, illustrative concept layout, number of homes and general extent of development.

If outline planning consent is granted, a detailed planning application called a “reserved matters” planning application would be prepared. This would include more detail such as architecture, materials, detailed layout and landscaping, and would be subject to further consultation with the local community before being submitted for determination. Both outline and reserved matters planning applications are subject to Statutory Consultation carried out by the Local Planning Authority (Derby City Council).

The planning application is an outline planning application. This type of planning application sets out the broad principles of development, such as maximum number of homes, an illustrative layout and site access arrangements. Should outline planning permission be received, finer details such as specific house types, detailed layout, architecture etc would be subject to a subsequent further planning application (called a reserved matters planning application). This would involve further consultation with the community.

While house types would be determined at the reserved matters planning stage, Bloor Homes builds a wide range of high-quality homes, from bungalows, through starter homes for first-time buyers, to large family homes. Please use the consultation feedback questionnaire to tell us the types of homes you would like to see prioritised in Spondon.

As the site is being proposed for development as a Grey Belt site, around 45% of the new homes would be classified as affordable homes in line with national policy (30% local policy plus a 15% uplift due in accordance with Grey Belt principles). This will provide opportunities for those on lower incomes with connections to the local area to secure a home of their own. Affordable housing is anticipated to be provided in a mix of affordable rent and shared ownership homes aimed at first time buyers. However, this will be determined in consultation with Derby City Council’s Housing Team.

We are happy to work with Derby City Council for Local Occupancy Criteria to be applied to the affordable housing provision, if this is a priority in community feedback. This would see affordable housing prioritised for those with a local connection.

Bloor Homes does provide bungalows within many of our developments, and there is the potential to do so at Spondon should consultation feedback indicate a demand.

We know that sustainability is hugely important to communities across the country. It is anticipated that the new homes at Spondon would be built to the Future Homes Standard, resulting in a neighbourhood of net zero carbon-ready homes.

The neighbourhood will be gas-free, with all homes provided with air source heat pumps as standard. Solar panels will also be incorporated, which along with the use of the latest materials and technique to maximise insulation, air tightness and heat recovery, will create an uplift in energy efficiency of 75-80%.

The new homes will incorporate sanitaryware and appliances that meet the highest water efficiency standards.

Electric vehicle (EV) charging points will be provided for all homes with on plot parking, together with access to communal EV charging points for the whole neighbourhood.

To minimise the impact of construction, we always aim to procure materials from sustainable sources and recycle construction waste as far as is possible.

The masterplan for the proposed new neighbourhood includes a potential sports or community facility. This could take a number of forms, for example the potential to provide cricketing facilities is being explored to complement activities at the neighbouring cricket club.

Use the consultation feedback questionnaire to tell us your suggestions for a potential sports or community use for this area.

The provision of high-quality green public open spaces is at the heart of the landscape-led approach to sensitive development at Spondon, with around two thirds of the overall site area being retained as open space. Existing mature trees and the vast majority of hedgerows will be retained. Alongside this, extensive additional planting of new trees and the reinstatement of historic hedgerows that had been lost to agriculture, will enhance habitat provision across the site and increase tree cover.

The Environment Agency’s Flood Map for Planning demonstrates the site is primarily located within Flood Zone 1, which has the lowest risk of flooding from fluvial sources. However low-lying land adjacent to the Lees Brook within the north-western extents of the site are located within Flood Zones 2 and 3. No build development will be located in or near these areas of flood risk.

The Flood Map for Planning also demonstrates that the site generally has a very low risk of surface water flooding, with the exception of an overland flow path associated with the Lees Brook and its tributary. All development will be offset from this flow path. The mapping also demonstrates isolated areas of low-high flood risk associated with topographical low spots. The flood risk associated with these areas will be mitigated via the infilling of low spots and grading of ground levels to divert surface water towards the proposed drainage network and landscaped areas.

A Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS) is proposed to manage surface water runoff from the site. The proposed surface water drainage network will be designed to cater for all storm events up to and including a 1 in 100-year storm event, with a +40% uplift to account for climate change, and a +10% consideration for urban creep. Surface water runoff will be collected by a network of attenuation basins which will be located within the northern extents of the site, where ground levels are the lowest. A restricted discharge will be made from each catchment at greenfield runoff rate.

In addition to managing surface water, the SuDS features have the added benefit of providing new more varied wetland habitats, further enhancing biodiversity within the site.

Vehicular access to the site is proposed via a new roundabout junction on Locko Road providing access points to both the western and eastern parcels. It is proposed that the speed limit be reduced to the north of the proposed roundabout so that the speed limit would be 30mph. This would be reinforced by the effect of the roundabout naturally slowing traffic on the transition from Locko Road to the north into Spondon.

There are a number of opportunities to link into both the outward facing public right of way network to the north, but also to integrate the development into Spondon by creating and improving north south connections. To the west this can be achieved by linking connections to the existing routes off Longley Lane, particularly the lit footpath which connects Royal Hill Road. To the east this will be achieved by re-establishing the connection from the site to Louise Greaves Lane between the cricket club and the allotments, providing quick and convenient access to Sancroft Road (and its bus stops). These connections will make the site well integrated with Spondon. Improvements will also be made to Locko Road, with a footpath included to improve pedestrian safety whilst travelling to the site.

Improvements to public transport are proposed, including potential improvements to existing bus stops on Sancroft Road. The scheme is being designed to accommodate bringing the Spondon circular bus route into the site through the provision of additional bus stops on Locko Road.

A Transport Assessment and Travel Plan will support the outline planning application. In addition, a standalone Active Travel Assessment will also be submitted.

We are conscious of the ever-increasing importance of ensuring that development is sustainable, protecting and enhancing natural habitats and green infrastructure as much as possible whilst delivering much needed homes for people and families.

The new neighbourhood will feature extensive green public open spaces, including a large area of public parkland in the northern portion of the site. A network of walking and cycling routes linking with existing public rights of way will be set within these landscaped open spaces, as well as features including children’s play areas for new and existing residents and areas of biodiversity enhancement.

A key consideration with a planning proposal such as this is to ensure that local services receive the investment they need to accommodate housing growth in the local area. The development will generate investment into local infrastructure such as healthcare and education, and this will be informed by consultation carried out by Derby City Council with statutory bodies such as the local NHS Integrated Care Board and the local education authority and will be secured via legal agreement between Bloor Homes and the Council.

To ensure that the impact of construction is kept to a minimum, a Construction Management Plan is being prepared and will form part of the planning conditions of any outline planning permission.

Bloor Homes has created a dedicated website – www.bloorhomesspondon.com - to provide an opportunity for members of the community to view our emerging plans and provide feedback.

Once we submit our outline planning application, there will be a further opportunity to provide input and comment through the Derby City Council’s statutory consultation on the submitted plans. The website will be updated to provide information about how to take part in the statutory consultation.

If outline planning permission is granted, we will then carry out further consultation on matters of detail such as architecture, detailed layout of homes, landscaping etc as we prepare a subsequent reserved matters planning application.

If you would like to be kept updated on this process and opportunities to take part in further engagement, please ensure you opt-in to receive email updates on the project when completing our online questionnaire.